\fPB Will Undertake Survey of Millwork Industry

Washington, D. C., Oct. 30.-A survey of the millwork industry is being undertaken by the War Producvtion Board to determine what proportion of existing capacity is being used for direct war requirements and whether the available plant facilities may be more effectually utilized by concentration of war orders in strategically located areas.

A questionnaire that will be used to obtain the factual data wanted from the industry now is in preparation.

When the time comes to canvass the industry, mill minagements will be asked to supply detailed information regarding their machinery, plant capacitieg, and operations.

Managements already have gained some idea of what the future may hold for them through conferences between their representatives on the Millwork Industry Advisory Committee and the staff of WPB's Lumber and Lumber Products Branch. Two meetings of the committee have been held in Washington and other meetings are scheduled.

Arthur tfpson, chief of the Lumber Branch, warned the advisory committee that the time is coming when there will be only two classes of orders, those for direct war use and those for essential civilian requirements.

Lumber mills have lallen behind in orders from 20 to 120 days, Mr. Upson said, because of a critical manpower shortage. He estimated the over-all deficit of manpower in the industry would amount to about 14 per cent of normal or usual manhours.

In the face of decreasing manpower, the industry has found it increasingly difficult to adjust to requirements much above normal, Mr. Upson explained. Extensive and increasing use of lumber and lumber products as substitutes for metal has complicated the problem. With less manpower, a curtailment of production has taken place though the demand for lumber has grown by leaps and bounds. It all adds up to a shortage of lumber.

Unequal distribution of millwork orders has become a problem of serious proportions, according to studies made in the Lumber and Lumber Products Branch of the War Production Board.

Mathias W. Niewenhous, assistant chief of the branch, under which the Millwork Section functions, laid the findings of these preliminary surveys before the Industry Ad- visory Committee and explained the meaning of concentration. likely to receive military orders. Hence, they would probably not be chosen for civilian production.

In some areas, he said, mills have booked orders that they cannot possibly fill for several months, while other mills have been forced to suspend operations because they have no business.

To avert needless shutdowns, dislocations and hardship to the industry, a program of concentration is in the making. The main features of the plan are essentially those which have been successfully introduced in other war industries. Some mills would produce exclusively for war purposes, and others would take care of essential civilian needs.

The millwork industry thus far during the war has enjoyed uncurtailed production because, among other things, the industry has required relatively small amounts of critical materials and because lumber has been available.

There are several reasons why a different situation now prevails, however.

1. The available raw materials, labor, transportation and fuel, each within limits of total supply, must be utilized only for war and essential civilian production.

2. It is necessary to keep the production of essential civilian millwork items at a level that will not interfere with war production.

3. At the same time, civilian manufacture must not be curtailed to the extent that a breakdown of the national economy would follow.

In these circumstances, Mr. Niewenhous said it is urgently necessary that a program of production be developed in the millwork industry which will utilize to the fullest extent possible the productive capacities of labor, equipment and management.

In Great Britain, he pointed out, the large manufacturers, under a system of concentration, are producing strictly war items, while essential civilian requirements are being handled by the smaller wood-working plants.

Among the factors to be considered in developing a program of concentration are: (1) suitability for military production, (2) availability of raw materials, (3) labor market conditions, (4) power, (5) transportation, and (6) size of firms.

Certain plants would be designated as "nucleus" firms to continue in the manufacture of essential civilian products. A few plants would be used as warehouses, and others possibly would be shut down entirely.

It is estimated variously that there are between 3,000 and 6,500 units and companies manufacturing millwork items. These units range from the one-man millwork department in a retail lumber yard to stock millwork factories employing as many as 1,000 persons. Accurate and complete data on their capacity, equipment, power supply, and transportation facilities will be sought by the questionnaire method.

The problems of the smaller producers would be dealt with where necessary through the special channels that have been set up within the government for that purpose. The Smaller War Plants Corporation is the agency charged with that function. The head of the government corporation is also chief of the Smaller War Plants Division of the War Production Board.

Whether the concentration plan is carried out as now conceived will be determined only aftei all the relevant facts are known, the branch officials said.

C. T. Melander is the chief of the Millwork Section within the Lumber Branch.

Members of the Millwork Industry Advisory Committee who were in attendance at the second meeting were:

E. J. Curtis, Clinton, Iowa; Grant Dixon, Spokane, Wash.; S. S. Edwards, Kansas City, Mo.; Harvey B. Goodjohn, Leavenworth, Kan.; J. P. Simpson, Tacoma, Wash.; R. M. Srygley, Birmingham, Ala.; Frank Stevens, Waco, Texas; Edwin W. Tibbets, Boston, Mass.; A. R. Tipton, Muscatine, Iowa; M. B. Wilcox, Binghamton, N. Y.

Discontinuing Business

Willow Glen Lumber Company, San Jose, A. S. McKinney, owner, has closed this well known vard for the duration.

An even 50 per cent of this yard's crew has already gone into the service. Mr. McKinney's son, Verlon D. McKinney is in the Navy; Theo. R. Lannin is a Second Lieutenant in the Army, and Stanley E. Lewis is in the Navy,s mosquito boat school.

Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Means of 483 Aster Street, Laguna Beach, Calif., will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary on December 1. They will be at home all day and will be pleased to have any of their friends call.

l. O. (Joe) Means, now retired, was associated with the lumber business for many years. He started with the S. K. Martin Lumber Co. in Chicago in 1890 which at that time had the largest wholesale lumber yard in the world, and which was afterwards sold to the Edward Hines Lumber Co.

He came West in 1900, and located in Seattle where he became sales manager of the Seattle Lumber Company, remaining with this firm until they closed the business in 1908.'

He came to Los Angeles in 1910 and organlzed the Alpine Lumber Co., as selling agents for the Eastern Redwood Co., Albion Lumber Co., Peninsula Lumber Co., and Clark & Wilson Lumber Co. He was appointed manager of the Consolidated Lumber Co. at Wilmington in 1912, and was with this firm for two years. He then formed a connection with the Frank P. Doe Lumber Co. and retained his interest with them until L924, when he started in the wholesale business for himself in Los Angeles.

Before his retirement from business, he was in charge of the Los Angeles office of John E. Marshall, Inc., of Long Beach, lumber handlers, for several years.

Mr. and Mrs. Means resided in Pasadena for thirty years. Several years ago they moved to Laguna Beach, and liked it so well, they decided to make it their pennanent home.

\VITH McNEILL CONSTRUCTION CO.

Walter Motta, manager of The Diamond Match Company's yard at Livermore, Calif., recently resigned his position to become associated with the McNeill Construction Co., Livermore. He was 14 years with The Diamond Match Company, and manager of the Livermore yard for the past eight years.

Recovering From Accident

Bates Smith, manager of the Los Angeles office of MacDonald & Harrington, is convalescing from the results of an accidental fall in his home on November 3.